Abstract

Background Burgeoning global mental health endeavors have renewed debates about cultural applicability of psychiatric categories. This study’s goal is to review strengths and limitations of literature comparing psychiatric categories with cultural concepts of distress (CCD) such as cultural syndromes, culture-bound syndromes, and idioms of distress.

Methods The Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR) was adapted based on cultural psychiatry principles to develop a Cultural Psychiatry Epidemiology version (SAQOR-CPE), which was used to rate quality of quantitative studies comparing CCD and psychiatric categories. A meta-analysis was performed for each psychiatric category.

Conclusions Cultural concepts of distress are not inherently unamenable to epidemiological study. However, poor study quality impedes conceptual advancement and service application. With improved study design and reporting using guidelines such as the SAQOR-CPE, CCD research can enhance detection of mental health problems, reduce cultural biases in diagnostic criteria and increase cultural salience of intervention trial outcomes.

Our paper has been published in Int. J. Epidemiol. (2013)doi: 10.1093/ije/dyt227, First published online: December 23, 2013.Thanks to Brandon Kohrt for giving me an opportunity to collaborate with him and rest of the team on it.

about.me

A humanitarian professional engaged in mental health care and psychological research with an aim to promote psychological well-being. He is dedicated for the development of Psychology in Nepal and loves to collaborate with like-minded people. He is a founder of NEPsychNet (Nepalese Psychology Network) and he blogs at sujenman.wordpress.com